West Essex Park is literally right in our backyard here at Crane’s Mill

West Essex Park – next door to Crane’s Mill

You may already know that Crane’s Mill is a 48-acre oasis that combines the natural beauty of a Certified Wildlife Habitat with an upscale residential retirement setting.

What you may not know is that our nature walking trails on the west end of our campus lead directly into West Essex Park—home to over 1,300 acres of parkland including an environmental center, boating and canoe landings, golf driving range, and so much more! Plus, birdwatchers know West Essex Park as a destination to see some of their more elusive feathered friends.

Plus, stay tuned to the Crane’s Mill Courier as we share more of our favorite local spots including other parks, restaurants, theaters, museums, and more. Do have a favorite spot that you would like to see profiled? Click here to send us an email—we’d love to hear from you!

Crane’s Mill, a senior living community in Essex County, New Jersey, is committed to the successful aging of its residents.

A Crane’s Mill resident uses the Telesensory Machine in our library.

The Crane’s Mill staff is continuously searching for new ways to ensure our residents are able to stay active and healthy throughout their retirement.

There are examples of this type of commitment to successful aging all around the campus. For instance, in our library, there is a Telensory Machine, which magnifies text and images in books up to 50 times their original size. This machine was brought to Crane’s Mill in part because of our resident low vision support group and their dedication to ensuring that people with vision impairment can still enjoy books, magazines, and other printed materials.

Crane’s Mill, an Essex County, New Jersey Retirement Community is home to a number of bridge enthusiasts.

Bridge is a popular game at Crane’s Mill

Bridge is a very popular pastime here at Crane’s Mill. Our Director of Community Programming frequently plans Bridge games in our Cherry Blossom Lounge. In addition, many residents put together their own Bridge games throughout the week.

Personally, this author has seen this card game bring together people from all walks of life. For example, our Assisted Living and Independent Living residents often meet up for weekly games, as do guests from the outside community including residents’ friends and family members.

It’s just one of many ways that people include their current friends, and make new friends, here at Crane’s Mill. Our resident-run welcoming committee reaches out to every new resident to learn all about them, and does a wonderful job of pairing the person up with current residents who share their interests. To learn more, please call 973-276-6700 or click here to send us an email.

Residents of Crane’s Mill, an Essex County Retirement Community, enjoy gardening as a fun spring activity.

April is National Garden Month

Although today may mark “April Fools’ Day,” we’re not joking when we tell you that that April is National Garden month. Considering we’re in the Garden State, and that our residents enjoy gardening, how can we notcelebrate this colorful month!

In the colder weather, all sorts of plants and flowers can be seen in our campus greenhouse, but as the weather warms, the ground thaws, and the days grow longer, you’ll begin to see many different gardens sprouting up all around campus.

For our cottage-dwellers, you will see gardens akin to those you would see at a single-family home while apartment residents take advantage of their screened-in porches (every apartment has one). Plus there’s the ever-popular gardening club, which does a fantastic job in transforming pockets of our 48-acre campus intro glorious gardens.